Aiven for Apache Kafka® Developer tier
Aiven for Apache Kafka® Developer tier is a paid service tier for Classic Kafka that sits between the Free tier and Professional tier. Use it for development, prototyping, testing, or production workloads that need more throughput, more topics, longer retention, more storage, or service integrations than the Free tier provides, without committing to a Professional plan. Aiven for Apache Kafka® Connect is available as a separately billed service.
For capacity, pricing, and service limits, see Limits and specifications.
When to use the Developer tier
Use the Developer tier when:
- You need higher throughput, more topics, longer retention, or more storage than the Free tier offers.
- You need a paid Aiven for Apache Kafka® Connect service or service integrations, neither of which is available on the Free tier.
- You need a paid environment for development, prototyping, testing, or smaller-scale production workloads without committing to a Professional plan.
What the Developer tier includes
A Developer tier service includes:
- Apache Kafka® on two nodes with fixed compute and storage.
- Karapace Schema Registry and REST Proxy.
- A sample data generator in the console for testing producers, consumers, and Karapace Schema Registry.
- Quick connect from the Kafka service overview page in the Aiven Console using Set up your Stream or Connection information to get connection parameters and sample client code. For details, see Connect to Aiven for Apache Kafka®.
- Supported service integrations, including Aiven for Apache Kafka® Connect and Prometheus.
Automate workflows with Skills
Skills are ready-to-run workflows that automate common Kafka tasks, such as:
- Creating a Kafka service and configuring it end-to-end.
- Creating topics, users, and permissions.
- Generating sample data and validating the deployment.
- Configuring connectors and integrations.
Skills are available on Developer tier and Professional tier services.
Run them with
npx skills or in another
environment that supports Skills, such as an editor or AI assistant.
Skills use Aiven CLI internally and require an authenticated CLI
session. For details, see
Set up Aiven for Apache Kafka® using Skills.
Manage Developer tier services from the Aiven Console, the Aiven CLI, or the Aiven API.
Limits and specifications
The following specifications apply to Developer tier services.
| Specification | Developer tier |
|---|---|
| Price | Starts at $35 per month for 1 day retention; pricing varies by cloud and geographical region |
| Nodes | 2 |
| Throughput | 1 MB/s ingress, 2 MB/s egress |
| Topics | Up to 20 |
| Partitions | Up to 100 per topic and 2000 max across the service |
| Replication factor | 1 |
| Metadata mode | KRaft |
| Retention | 1, 2, or 3 days. Pricing varies by option and is shown in the Aiven Console |
| Storage | Fixed local storage per node |
| Kafka Connect | Optional service, billed separately |
| Cloud | Geographical region in the Aiven Console. Pricing varies by cloud |
| Service integrations | Kafka Connect and Prometheus |
| Upgrade | To a Professional tier from the Aiven Console |
| Downgrade to Free tier | Not supported |
Developer tier pricing depends on retention, cloud, and geographical region. Review current pricing during service creation in the Aiven Console and on Aiven for Apache Kafka® pricing.
For higher throughput, storage, retention, or connector limits, upgrade your service to a Professional plan in the Aiven Console.
Compare service tiers
| Feature | Free | Developer | Professional |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | Starts at $35 per month | Varies by plan |
| Throughput | Up to 250 KB/s ingress and egress | 1 MB/s ingress, 2 MB/s egress | Higher, plan-dependent |
| Topics | Up to 5 | Up to 20 | Plan-dependent |
| Partitions | 1 per topic | Up to 100 per topic | Plan-dependent |
| Nodes | 1 | 2 | Plan-dependent |
| Replication factor | 1 | 1 | Plan-dependent |
| Metadata mode | KRaft | KRaft | KRaft |
| Retention | Fixed | 1, 2, or 3 days | Plan-dependent |
| Storage | Fixed | Fixed local storage per node | Plan-dependent |
| SLA | None | 99% | Up to 99.99%, plan-dependent |
| Kafka Connect | Not supported | Optional, billed separately | Full support, plan-dependent |
| Service integrations | Not supported | Kafka Connect, Prometheus | Yes, plan-dependent |
| Cloud and geographical region | Fixed | Geographical region only | Cloud and geographical region selectable |
For replication factor 3 or similar production redundancy, use a Professional plan. Starting with Apache Kafka 3.9, new services use KRaft for metadata instead of ZooKeeper.
Upgrade path
Upgrade to the Professional tier when the Developer tier no longer meets your throughput, storage, or scaling needs. Professional tier supports higher throughput, storage, topic limits, and SLA.
Kafka and Kafka Connect tier compatibility
Aiven for Apache Kafka® and Aiven for Apache Kafka® Connect services that are integrated with each other must run on the same service tier. Both services must be on the Developer tier or both on the Professional tier.
This requirement affects how you upgrade integrated services.
To upgrade a Developer tier Kafka service with an integrated Kafka Connect service to the Professional tier:
- Power off the Kafka Connect service. This preserves the service and its configuration.
- Upgrade the Kafka service to the Professional tier.
- Upgrade the Kafka Connect service to the same tier.
- Power on the Kafka Connect service.
For step-by-step instructions, see Upgrade the service.
Developer tier services cannot be downgraded to the Free tier. Professional tier downgrade options depend on the selected plan. Review supported changes in the Aiven Console.
Related pages